This is certainly not of immediate help, but I have been looking
seriously into the Logo literature for ideas and nice example projects
to bring into Squeak as part of a more general tutorial/doc project for
Squeak that I'm working on. These Logo exercises are usually very
strongly graphics or natural language oriented -- such should be more
compelling, comprehensible, and interesting as a starting point than the
usual fairly abstract intro material. To my mind, the crucial point is
to immediately put something into the student's hands that they can
manipulate, change, and control with near-zero knowledge, then peel back
the layers until they finally meet the wizard -- imparting the appetite
for knowledge and a path to its attainment is far more important than
any number of facts you could hope to teach (no matter what the age or
experience of the student). 

The catch is that the Logo examples need to be recreated in OO style,
and some scaffolding will probably be needed to smooth the path and
flatten the learning curve into full scale Squeak (this is not at all a
bad thing - just time-consuming). In Squeak, class Pen is the equivalent
(more or less) of Turtle, and there are several nice example figures
already there to play with.

A pretty good place to begin if you are at all interested is The Logo
Foundation: http://el.www.media.mit.edu/groups/logo-foundation/

Edward P Luwish wrote:
> 
> My wife is eager to learn computer programming, but has no background
> whatsoever.  She is fascinated with Smalltalk, and I would like to help
> teach her programming via Squeak rather than the typical BASIC or C
> which have "Dummies" books galore.

Amen.

> I might well have to write the book myself, and would like references to
> work that has been done in the area of teaching Smalltalk as an
> introduction to computer programming for intelligent adults with limited
> computer literacy.  I think it can be done.
> 
> Those of us who remember the goals of Dynabook will know that Smalltalk
> was intended to be accessible to beginners and even children.
> 
> The textbook and course would use graphics- and text-oriented examples,
> teaching some basic sorting and searching along the way, maybe some
> basic mathematical examples that can be verified on a pocket calculator
> (sums, factorials, etc.).  It would teach Object thinking as a problem
> solving approach, some fundamental design and development-process
> patterns, and the Smalltalk brand of "use the Source" for software reuse
> and writing style.  I don't have any experience with formal teaching,
> but have an excellent resource in my wife, who will give me instant
> feedback as to whether I am doing the right thing or not.  In fact, I am
> myself a "newbie" (I HATE that word) to Squeak, which may actually be an
> advantage in this undertaking.

Sounds very good to me. I've laid out much the same path for my own
project (though probably not quite on the scale of a book).  

> In fact, simply updating and revising "Taste" along these lines might be
> sufficient, but I notice that Messrs. Kaehler and Patterson ceded their
> rights to the publisher (Norton) for reasons that I am sure made sense
> at the time.  I don't know how to go about securing permission to use
> this book as a starting point, or if the best course is to start from
> scratch.

"Taste of Smalltalk" is intended to lead the student from the procedural
mindset in progressive steps into the OO point of view. IMO, I don't
think this would be as useful to an absolute beginner, not being
burdened with this mindset to begin with, and might even create an
attachment to the procedural styles introduced first in the book.

> If this seems like a worthy project, or a complete waste of effort,
> please let me know your opinions.  If I end up undertaking it, I would
> like to be able to find contributors and reviewers in our ranks.
> 
> Ed

I would certainly help.

-- Dwight